March 13

Dear Readers …

Greetings from Port St. Lucie, my new spring training home after spending the last seven on the other side of the state with the Yankees. On the Mets this year and have already noticed the change in pace: There is a pace here, as opposed to the floor-it-and-don’t-take-your-foot-off-the-gas mentality surrounding the Yankees. Looking forward to what the team promises will be a fun season. Speaking of which, I’m not going to let Peter Abraham have all the fun. Peter has been blogging in Tampa for a few weeks, and now I’m up and running on the Mets. The plan is to inform, entertain and give you an insight beyond what you’ll get in the daily coverage in The Journal News and LoHud.com. To make this work, a couple of things have to happen. The first is for me to post throughout the day and the second is for you to respond. To me, the essence of sports is the healthy exchange of ideas. I want to know what you think after you read. I don’t care if you agree or not _ that would be boring _ just that the piece you’ve read made you think. I want you to come back with your thoughts and bring your high heat. You’ll get it right back. A month into spring training and the popular first impression has the Mets being the team to beat in the NL East. Whenever I run into a writer friend from another city the question is always if I think the Mets are as good as advertised. Can’t say they are. They should be good, but their pitching, one through five in the rotation, has questions and I can honestly say I don’t know the answers. What I do know, is Atlanta always seems to find a way, so I have to go with the Braves until somebody beats them. Will that team be the Mets? Take a few minutes after filling out your NCAA brackets and tell me.—John

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